Andrew Greeley Interview (Lawrence Grobel)

Lawrence Grobel has been a freelance writer for thirty years, Playboy calls him "the interviewer's interviewer." In 1993 he sat down with Andrew Greeley:

Lawrence: "What's the most courageous thing you've done as a writer?"

Andrew Greeley: "The greatest risk was to turn from nonfiction to fiction. It took me a while because I wondered if I was able to do it. It was a risky business, not because I was going to put some eroticism in my books, I'm unself-conscious there, sexual attraction is part of the human condition, you can't write a story without it - I just felt telling stories was a risk."

Lawrence: "What would you say is a main theme that runs through you books?

Andrew Greeley: "Second chances. That we keep getting second chances."

Lawrence: "Would Chicago always be a subtheme"

Andrew Greeley: "Somebody once said, "Why don't you take your novels out of Chicago, it's not the center of the world." And I say, "Yeah, it is." Faulkner was comfortable in Mississippi; I'm not Faulkner, but I write about Chicago."

Endangered Species, Writer Talk About Their Craft, Their Visions, Their Lives
by Lawrence Grobel
Published by DA CAPO Press (c) 2001
page 166, 167

Christmas Fun

Christmas Time

Merry Christmas, again

Merry Christmas

Alex Haley Interview (Lawrence Grobel)

Lawrence Grobel has been a freelance writer for thirty years, Playboy calls him "the interviewer's interviewer." In 1985 he sat down with Alex Haley:

Lawrence: "At the time of its publication Roots was hailed as one of the most important books of the century, as well as the most important civil rights event since the 1965 march of Selma. Do you hold it in such esteem?"

Alex Haley: "I never would have said that in the first place. I have a much more basic view of myself. I feel myself as a conduit. Roots got born on the front porch of a pretty big house in Henning, Tennessee, where I came from. It was my grandmother's porch. After my grandfather died, my grandma invited her sisters to spend the next summer with her. I was six that summer, and after supper we would gather on the front porch, thick with honeysuckle vines, and the women would all start rocking in their rocking chairs. Then they'd run their hands down into the pocket of their aprons and come up with a can of sweet carrot snuff. They'd load their lower lips and just start talking about their family. They'd talk about their parents, about their daddy's daddy, this ha rum-scar um individual always fighting chickens, people called him Chicken George. Then they would talk about his mother, Miss Kizzy. All of this went on night after night, and that's where I first began to hear the story and why I think of myself as a conduit."

Endangered Species, Writers Talk About Their Craft, Their Visions, Their Lives
by Lawrence Grobel
Published by DA CAPO Press (c) 2001
page 211

Joseph Heller Interview (Lawrence Grobel)

Lawrence Grobel has been a freelance writer for thirty years,Playboy calls him "the interviewer's interviewer." He sat down with Joseph Heller early in his career:

Lawrence: "Do you have an audience in mind when you're writing?"

Joseph Heller: "Yes, somebody who has a taste like my own. It's true of Catch-22 and it's true of Something Happened. Each book is the kind of book I'd enjoy reading if somebody else had written it. The books are vastly different from each other. Catch-22 was read and enjoyed by people who were much younger than I was, with less education, less interest in literature than I have. The people who buy my books are interest in serious reading, even though the works themselves are humorous and funny. Not for a reader who's interested in plot or erotic literature. There's a lot of sex in both books, but the erotic element is played down."

Endangered Species, Writers Talk About Their Craft, Their Visions, Their Lives
by Lawrence Grobel
Published by DA CAPO Press (c) 2001
page 222